Blackberry Dye

Did you know that you can dye fabrics naturally with things like turmeric, acorns, and blackberries?  I have been dying with tea and coffee for a while, but this is my first try with other items.  There are a ton of great resources online,  I found a great list of plants n such all separated into color categories.

This little batch of pinky purple fabrics I dyed with blackberries.  There may be a better way to do it, but I get bored reading lots of instructions, so I just improvised.  

I added to a large pot about one cup of blackberries with about 2 cups of water and 2 Tablespoons of salt 

let it boil for a while 

smooshed up the berries a bit 

added the fabric 

simmered for while

let it sit overnight

rinsed with water and vinegar

let dry

Fabulous!

The fabrics in the photo are (from left to right) cotton, raw silk and linen.

Have you used natural items to dye?

What did you use and how did it turn out?

Cleaning with Baking Soda

Did you know how awesome baking soda is? It has tons of uses besides baking.

Yesterday I used it to clean the coffee stains off my white mugs. I have these heavy truck stop style coffee mugs, I love the weight and feel of them but they tend to stain.

All you do is pour a little baking soda into the bottom of the mug, maybe a teaspoon or so.

Add just a tiny bit of water, just enough to make it a paste. Stick your fingers in there and scrub.

See, almost as good as new.

I love finding new ways to clean my home without all the nasty chemicals.

Do you have any natural cleaning tips?

Homemade Laundry Soap

I've been making my own powdered laundry soap for almost a year now. I happened across a blog (I don't remember which one at this point) that had a recipe for homemade liquid laundry soap. It sounded like a good idea to me because my son has very sensitive skin, I like the idea of knowing the ingredients in the products I use and gosh dang it, it's really cheap and I'm super frugal. The recipe for the liquid version was a little too involved for me so I searched around and found a recipe for powdered laundry soap. It's very simple and quick to make.

UPDATE: I have switched to a new, easier recipe that I found on Pinterest (oh how I love Pinterest)
You can find the new recipe here:
http://amy-newnostalgia.blogspot.com/2013/02/no-grate-no-cook-liquid-laundry.html
I have been using it for about a year now, it's fabulous!

Here is how I ~used~ to make it:

2 4.5oz bars Ivory Soap

1 Cup Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (Not baking soda)

1 Cup 20 Mule Team Borax

First Grate the 2 bars of Ivory into a bowl, the smaller side of the grater works best since we are trying to make a powder. Some people use Ivory flakes but I haven't tried it.

Break up the grated soap a little more squishing it through your fingers, we want it to be as small as possible.

Then add in the Borax and Washing soda and stir stir stir.

For a normal size load add 1 tablespoon of soap, more for larger loads less for smaller. This amount does about 45 normal size loads.

Thats it, easy peasy.

Side notes:

~You can use other soaps, but from what I've read you need to be careful of the oil content, you don't want to add a bunch of oils to your laundry soap.

~I usually wear some kind of face cover when I'm making a batch because it makes me sneezy and it cant be good to be inhaling a bunch of it.

~This is where I found my recipe---> http://diynatural.com, they also did the math on the price difference. $$$

~When I buy my bars of Ivory I open them up before I store them, so when I get around to grating them they are a bit more dry and that makes it easier.

~This does not suds up in your washer, suds do not = clean.

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